1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to the field of packaging of ingots, particularly those used for dental casting alloys and other applications.
2. Background
Several types of alloys are used in dental repair and reconstruction. Typically, these alloys are produced in ingots for convenient handling and storage in a dental laboratory. As these materials can be expensive, it is important for a dental laboratory to be able to easily monitor inventory, making sure that there is enough on hand to produce dental devices, while not maintaining a costly excess.
These alloys can have different compositions for suitability in different applications. However, sometimes it is not possible to differentiate different types of ingots themselves by physical inspection. Therefore, ingots are usually marked, by engraving, etching, or printing to indicate the alloy of which they are made. It is also important to keep the various types of ingots organized in the dental laboratory to facilitate producing dental devices and avoid confusion and potentially costly mistakes by using the incorrect alloy. Additionally, due to the high value of some of the materials and the values of some of the alloys provided by various sources of the ingots, methods and systems of identifying the source of and/or composition of the materials rapidly can prove valuable.
In addition, counterfeit ingots can enter the market, which can lead to inferior dental products for patients. Sometimes these imitations can be difficult to discern from the legitimate ingots. Therefore, it is also important to develop a production system that is difficult to copy without authorization.
What is needed is a system to efficiently produce and package ingots so that they can be safely transported and stored, neatly organized, and easily recognized in a dental laboratory to produce quality dental devices.